SADC Information 21 Project coordinators meet in Maseru

Minister of Communications, Dr. 'Mamphono Khaketla has challenged media practitioners to strive by all means to develop an all inclusive, balanced and equitable information and knowledge based society by engaging and ensuring relevant, accurate, timely, accountable, transparent and interactive information access through cultural and or traditional conventional media.

Speaking at a two-day Information Sharing Workshop for Southern African Development Community (SADC) national media coordinators and practitioners under the SADC Information 21 Project in Maseru on June 28, Dr. Khaketla said accepting this challenge would ensure that the special needs and shortcomings of people in the region do not result in their being deprived of information which would encourage their non-participation in building SADC.

The regional groupings' member-states, under the objectives of the Protocol on Culture, Information and Sport, have committed themselves to the promotion, growth and establishment of community, commercial, public, regional and global media for free flow of information.

The region is further committed to upgrading media infrastructure for communication in the urban and rural areas which at the end of the day, will promote media diversity, freedom, independence, self-sufficiency and pluralism, Dr. Khaketla said.

Dr. Khaketla said she hoped the Information 21 Project workshop would help participants gain the skills to report effectively on issues of national and regional importance, including the commitment by SADC to deal with the HIV/AIDS scourge as well as the local government elections the country will be holding later this year.

The fact that this first of three annual workshops on information sharing in being held in Lesotho is a sign that colleagues in the SADC region recognise the strides that Lesotho has made in promoting media freedom, the Minister said.

The SADC Information 21 Project is one of the regional body's vehicles for the empowerment of the people of the region through information and knowledge sharing that will enable them and their institutions to take informed decisions as they identify their niches in the regional development and integration agenda, according to Project Coordinator, Ms. Leefa Penehupifo Martin.

It aims at creating greater awareness of SADC objectives, programmes and activities. It is a three year information and communications partnership between the government of Belgium, through the Belgian Technical Cooperation and the peoples and governments of the region.. It is called Information 21 project because it was conceived to communicate SADC in the 21st century and beyond.

Implementation of the Euro 2 453 937 (approximately M19 140 708) started in October 2003 and is overseen by the SADC Secretariat and three civil society implementing partners, she said.

29 June 2004